Winter! (Or, watch out for that colored snow....)

It doesn't normally look like my winter blog picture for very long in Kentucky - not until this year, that is.  I now can totally sympathize with those from more northerly climes where snow comes and stays for months on end!  After several rounds of alternate snow and freezing rain (or semi-thaw, then refreezing), my neighborhood seems to be the snowiest one left in town.  The great piles of what was once fluffy snow that we shoveled to the side of drives and walks have hardened into some sort of monolithic rock-snow that simply will not melt and cannot be shoveled or even broken up and moved away (have to look for that pick axe....) 

I finally was able to break up and clear the ice in the gutter on our curb yesterday so that the melting water could run down to the end of the street and into the storm drain.  Until then, it was stuck and would refreeze every night into new ice dams at the ends of our driveways (cleared my neighbor's below me, too, to get a clear path to the end of the road)....  It will be nice to get back and forth to the mailbox without danger of injury for a while!

My town ran out of ice for drives long weeks ago and I have not been able to find any since.  I have resorted to using two canisters of regular table salt and some blue play sand left over from when my boys were little over the ensuing period.  Let this be a lesson to you:  DO NOT use colored play sand - even a little - on your drive when it glazes over.  The tiniest bit somehow morphs into endless amounts of colored sand that blows over the snow and in just a couple of days can be found all over your street in all sorts of places save the driveway area where you put it.  It also sticks to your shoes and tires as you traverse the driveway and ends up all over the garage and in your house (even though you leave your shoes at the door).

It is supposed to be in the low 50's here by this afternoon.  I am going out to haul out a hose and wash away all that darn sand while I can (no, last night's heavy rain did not manage to get it - I intend to use a high pressure blaster)....

At least it wasn't yellow....

Regena